Donegal Senator Jimmy Harte feels management at Letterkenny General Hospital have rail-roaded through a plan to make staff take unpaid leave during bad weather.
Donegaldaily.com yesterday learned how staff had all been contacted informing them about the hospital’s plans for winter.
They were told that because of budgetary constraints and in order to deliver maximum patient care, stranded staff would not be paid if they did not turn up during snow.
However Senator Harte said management could have been a little more sensitive to staff’s needs.
“I think they have use a rather large hammer to crack a nut. They cannot simply threaten staff not to pay them if they cannot get to work.
“As I understand it this was an email sent to staff telling them what was going to happen. They were not consulted or asked their opinion on it and neither were the unions.
“There is protocol there and this is a very sensitive issue. People cannot simply be told they will not be paid even if they have a genuine reason for not being able to get to work,” he said.
The Letterkenny-based politician added that he wanted to know if this was a HSE decision or if it had been made at local level.
“I appreciate that there is a budgetary issue but the bottom line is that in the current economic climate, decisions around people’s wages cannot simply be made on a whim,” he added.
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